Board of Aldermen — 5/09/17 Page 10
same thing with the woman who you mentioned feels that she is on fire. That may not be what your definition
of sanity is, but it’s her right as a citizen of Nashua and a citizen of the United States to come before the public
board and tell us what her issue is with a certain department in the city.
There’s a lot of other instances that | could mention, but the bottom line is we serve the taxpayers, we serve
the people of Nashua. We also serve guests of this city, property owners of this city, visitors of this city. When
they feel compelled to sit through a meeting and ask us to put some crazy zoning ordinance in, we should
listen to them because these are the extreme examples that | point out of things where this body doesn’t have
any control over what could happen.
However, there might be a situation where somebody comes and addresses us about a problem that we didn’t
know about that’s going on in our community that we don’t have any authority over. Maybe a crime that’s
going on in a certain area or a maybe a certain problem in a neighborhood that the Board of Public Works has
jurisdiction over. But it doesn’t matter. The point is we should be open and listening to the people of this city
and the people who take the time to take that microphone and address us. That’s what we are elected to do
and that’s what we should do. By passing this, we are eliminating some people’s right to speak to us, and | will
not support this.
Alderman Moriarty
| can’t pass an opportunity to agree with Alderman Clemons. As a representative we help people out. It’s hard
to define what’s not the jurisdiction of the Board. You understand what I’m getting at. | could certainly support
something like a timer. Besides from that, I’m with Alderman Clemons. |’m not going to support this.
Alderman Lopez
| think Alderman Clemons is exactly right that we have a responsibility to represent people and be available to
our constituents. | don’t know that this meeting needs to be the only venue for that. | particularly think it’s
important for aldermen to be available to people in their community so they can have discussions with them,
and also so the aldermen can direct them towards ways that they can actually achieve their goals.
| think leaving this is an open forum where people can come and present issues in general, it strikes me as
vaguely condescending because we're giving the impression that if somebody comes and makes a public
presentation and shares information specific to their experience that we’re immediately going to do something
about it when if we don’t have the jurisdiction or the authority to address it, they have just shared their situation
with the entire public and it’s on public record for no purpose. | think several of the examples that have been
brought up have been ones that have also included other parties to the situations involved. It is insensitive for
us to address those issues in a way that Mr. Cutter is having issues with his neighbors, he needs to articulate
his neighbors and identify them every single time he presents to the full Board of Aldermen. He has been
coming to the Infrastructure Committee and presenting there instead. There has been some discussion, and |
think it’s been productive.
Likewise, with the individual who has grievances with the Director of Public Health, etc., | think help could be
provided, like positive guidance and effective advice versus assuring ourselves that having a public comment
at the end of our meeting therefore gives everybody the chance to say what’s going on. | think we need to do
a little bit more than just letting people use the microphone when they want to. We should actively be trying to
help with resolve their issues.
Finally, | would also like to point out that there is a sensitivity issue to the people behind individuals speaking at
the mic. It is intimidating to do public comment. It is intimidating to come before a board of strangers and
articulate an issue. If you’ve done your research and you are really focused on a particular issue that the
Board may be addressing that night and you wanted to comment relative to it, it is very distracting to have
somebody who may come in from an entirely different state with an alternative agenda who is presenting that
in a manner that’s not necessarily appropriate. Who wants to follow that? It takes time away from the people
